Gen Z has enough reason to be anxious about financial security
how to live within your means while splurging on that which you care most about can yield what feels like a rich life. But none of these behaviours is easy, and all of them require achieving a baseline of financial comfort that is often elusive to young consumers who haven’t had a chance to build up savings or establish deep professional networks. Even diligent financial behaviours don’t always serve as protection.
The most robust emergency savings funds were easily drained in the pandemic for those in industries that shut down for extended periods. Inflation has eaten away at the gains of negotiating for a higher salary, getting a promotion or job-hopping for more money. Young adults also have to shell out a significantly greater portion of their income on housing than their parents did.
What’s more, we can’t overlook the existence of social and economic structures that have historically disenfranchised some individuals. That dynamic has also inhibited the ability to create and pass down generational wealth that enables others to start life on second or third base. And in the US, where there are few safety nets for those who fall on hard times, individuals are responsible for shoring up their finances to weather the most unexpected of storms.
Oh, and to not have a significant health crisis because medical bills are thought to be a leading cause of bankruptcy. No wonder Gen Z is worried. It doesn’t help that the US is so firmly rooted in the notion of individualism that many efforts to change policies to protect the American people are decried as paternalistic, or, worse, socialist.
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